AfroFlux 2019

As a part of B-Side Hip-Hop Festival alongside our director partners KRE8, Graffiti Artist.com and Break Mission we’re happy to finally announce this years guests.

As well as all the usual B-Side spills and thrills there’ll also be the added attractions of BMX displays and Street Basketball tournaments. Last year had over 10,000 attendees over the course of the weekend and 2019 sees the festival growing even further as we take a longer stretch of time from the 3rd of May and close up on the 12th.

Located in and around Birmingham Hippodrome, the city will once again become a shining sea of Hip-Hop and Street Culture influence.

AfroFlux will be involved behind a few of the scenes but will pop our collective heads above the surface for the following:

Tuesday 7th May

Hip Hop & The Infinity Gauntlet 6.30pm

Journey back into the birth of Hip-Hop and explore the parallels between Street culture, Sci-Fi, Fantasy and the Martial Arts.

Join your friendly neighbourhood AfroFlux speaker Juice Aleem for an evening of radioactive street-culture fun.
Ever wondered why your favourite MCs tend to have an alias?
How many masks does it take to make a villain?
Grandmaster or Flash?
What are the links between the MCU and Hip Hip?
What is your super-power?
The answers to all of these questions can be found in this 90 minute talk with activities.
Up to 30 participants

Jake is a dancer, B-Boy, martial artist and motion-capture artist who will show how movement from all of these disciplines can be used in film or theatre for choreography or stunt work.
We can’t just rest on the laurels of a Black Panther or Girl with All the Gifts.. We can make these heights again with our own projects. Come and join in.
Movement is an essential function of human life – come and discover new uses for your future selves.

For any interested in taking their current dance skills to add to acting, fight choreography or even stunt-work.

Art Talks – 6pm: Will Ashon speaks on his acclaimed book Chamber Music, About the Wu-Tang (In 36 Pieces). From 6pm there will be Wu-Tang inspired tunes played by Zab Dust.

Then we get to meet, listen and talk to the ex music label boss, writer and music journalist about his incredible take on one of the greatest debut albums from one of the world’s most iconic groups. A few copies will be available at a reduced price for B-Side. Chamber Music was also Rough Trade‘s book of the month for November 2018.

Flowmotion comes in from The Gap in Balsall Heath to it’s first city centre cipher with a few added surprises.

Manifesto:
To create a culture of freestyle and lyrical excellence; to celebrate different styles; to have fun; and to build.

We call emcees, rappers and other vocalists (poets, singers, toasters) and all friends to get with the spirit of the Flow Motion Cipher.

We want to encourage folks to step out of their comfort zones. We want poets to get stylish; street prophets to get poetic; space cats to come back to earth; clay lifers to go to space and everything else in between. We want participants and onlookers alike to encourage and challenge each other.

Rules: We don’t like rules but still…

1. Don’t hog the mic! No one wants to hear 256 bars of the same voice. Do your thing and keep the cipher in motion… your turn will come again.

2. Whilst there is a place for pure punch line rap and battle cats – no dissing anyone in the cipher. We want to world build and create a community, not fall into cheap trick territory.

Flow Motion is for practitioners and spectators alike.
OLD SCHOOL/ NOW SCHOOL/ FUTURE SCHOOL/ ALL WELCOME
Can’t wait to set the cipher in motion.
Bring ya skills!

Saturday 11th May

Sun Rei – Cosplay Workshop 10.30am to 12.30

Sun is an enthusiastic bubble of Manga and K-Pop knowledge who as well as being an engineer will guide us through the ins and outs of making our own cosplay outfits. This workshop is free and is for ages 9 and above. Cosplayers will have the chance to present their outfits to the rest of the Flux-Con later in the day

Our focus will be not only to show the arts and creative skills, to hone them, but to also make sure they can be kept. It’s one thing to support a Hip Hop star or superhero film but how do we make and sustain our own? Who do we speak to to make this a reality?”

The FluxCon will be a more considered affair this year and will be giving salutations to not only the many successes of projects such as Marvel’s Black Panther film but also to one of the Wakandan character’s creators, the Marvel Comics genius Stan Lee (RIP).

As well as it’s usual fare of comics, zines, cosplay and their respective creators, we will be having a panel that discusses the great achievements marked in recent years by creators of colour. Though maybe the most important thing will be speaking to those who are and have made strides to show others how to get there too.

Juice Aleem will be presenting this alongside Florence Okoye of Afrofutures UK.

Featuring –

Danny F The Art Sloth (Skank Magazine)

Legendary artist and writer from the classic controversial Black British comic, Skank Magazine. Find out about his newest Hip Hop and Windrush influenced projects.

Sara Kenney

Director, documentary maker and writer for the hit Image comic Surgeon X. This comic tale broke boundaries with it’s take on a near-future world short on medical aid and high in political intrigue.

Phil Tommy (film maker)

Actor and stunt-man for major motion pictures as well as indie Director and Producer.

Dan Lish

His illustration, gaming, comic and musical collaborations cover the wide cross-section of Hip Hop’s graphic forms and connections.
His drawings of icons such as DeLa Soul, RammEllZee, King Tubby and Nas are becoming staple in the pantheon.

Sun Rei (Cosplayer)

Oraine Johnson (Themis / Lucid)

(of Themis media) Who are one the win trail as they promote the release of their new comic and short film Lucid (which we were happy to have helped promote at the first Fluxcon). Lucid is a Birmingham based story of a young man introduced to a world of strange new powers through his dreams.

Josh Mugen – A B-Boy who knows his roots and links his dance into martial arts and Capoeira with a short display of ‘Tricking’.

Remani Love – Presenter, Host and film-maker, Remani will keep us up to speed with her travels through media, blogging and making documentaries.

1pm – Short film Bang Bang by NFX FIlms

1.30pm Short film Vajra (appx 12 mins) written and directed by Phil Tommy

2pm – FluxCon Quiz – prize give away

Sketch-off

2.30pm – FluxCon Cosplay Display (includes those who took part in Sun’s workshop) Prize give away

Loma is a Graffiti and Street Artist who will be exploring the syncretic themes between Dominican Voodu and the Catholic pantheon. Her work manages to bring the personal into public spaces through a distinctly vivid skill set.

Epod 3000 manages to bring an unknown future to existence right in front of our very eyes: blending classic Sci-Fi imagery with a Panzerist mind eye view.

Djs and artists from around 1pm including Latifah Stone, Afroqueen with band, T33K1D, Dj Nucleo, Bunny Bread and TIE.

Latifah Stone and DJ Nucleo 1-3pm

Latifah is a purveyor of all styles of Black music and plays in such a way that even the most un-funky is able to get down.

Nucleo is an award Turntablist extraordinaire. For him a scratch is

like a key on a piano. It’s concerto time.

T33K1D – 2pm.

Making more and more of a name for himself since leaving South Africa and creating a home in The West Midlands, T33k1D is more than ready to show the world his global consciousness.

Afroqueen – 3pm

This young artist has really begun to make waves over the last couple of years. With her band in tow, it’s time to prepare for the tsunami.

TIE – 4pm

A force of performance nature from her songwriting and singing, to production and straight up Rap songs. Switching from Wolof to English then to French or Serer it can be hard to keep your sights on Tie but you’ll never lose focus of this Senegalese sensation.

Soulful grooves and warm energy as Steph heads over from the KRE8 battles to her first AfroFlux.

9.50pm S Maverick

A rarity in his actions matching his lyrics. It’s Pure vibes and solid words from this forward thinking MC.

10.10pm Latifah Stone – DJ

11pm Yugen Blakrok

This South African Astro-Goth MC might have gotten a big push from her appearance on Kendrick’s Black Panther soundtrack but her long-term supporters will also be waiting to hear tunes from the current Anima Mysterium LP.

11.35pm Tehn – DJ

Always up to date and ready to mash up the dance with an eclectic bag of uptempo tunes from the leftfield

12.05 staHHr

Atlanta’s jewel in the crown brings her soulful Southern Hip Hop to the UK with her recent Respect Due project as well as joints from her albums and features including work with the infamous MF DOOM.

Throughout West Africa, the masquerade is an important figure in seasonal festivals and impromptu celebrations. Embodying powerful communal spirits and characters from myth and legend, they go by many names but are instantly recognisable. You may be able to see them in the Igbo people, Carnivale or the Jamaican Jonkanu. You may even be able to see them in yourself. Florence is a UX Designer, historian and all round excellent workshop leader. Free entry, all ages.

Art Talks: with TIE, staHHR and Lady Sanity 2pm

Q&A with these three broad-minded artists. Find out their creative processes and check for what projects they have coming up.